Alexander von Humboldt

WILLIAM VOX HOIEOLBT. J 40-5
1500 thalers ,(225Z.)- In this house llatianif^on
Humlioldt died. A )fl>ir^ *< ^
Here they again gathered round them all the iiitel- i*"8f'
lect and art of the metropolis., not excluding the Llus-
trious in station or politics. Princes of the royal
house, the highest officers of state, the first lights of
science at a period when Schleiermaclier, "Wolf,
Hegel and subsequently Alexander von Humboldt,
were the ornaments of the capital and the university
—whither many rare and aspiring talents also flocked
—all these met in the of this hospitable house,
to which the highest ornaments of the female
attraction and brilliancy. And amidst this profusion
of mind and talent, the grace of the lady of the house
remained paramount; and that social talent which
had made her so popular in Paris, Vienna, and Borne,
combined, as it so rarely is, in so high and so well-
balanced a degree, with intellect and even erudition.
And then Humboldt himself 1 The thinker, the
learned man, the statesman who knew most of the
countries of Europe from experience? and included
the whole earth in Ms comprehensive studies; who
to-day spoke sterling* wisdom to a roler of the states,
and to-morrow investigated the newest revelations of
science with the first scholar of the age ; who at one
moment revived the remembrances of Ms Jena days,
at another related adventures and anecdotes of Ids
political life,, and then again gave a sketch of the happy
days he had spent in Rome amd in Albano : Humboldt 1
"who possessed all the means of ruling over other
minds, imposing dignity, flow of eloquence, and sharp-
of satire and irony; who was possessed of an
infinite cheerfulness, which was vented sometimes in
joking humour, sometimes in amusing conversation.,
as if he looked at life only from its brightest ;
who, as he had not concealed Ms ideal tendencies in
the bustle of politics, now, when many thought Mm.
absorbed by the ndniitise of pHlologic poured
forth a roaring flood of thought which been, cul-
tivated by science, and revealed at the time a